Friday, May 8, 2009

The potted plant has always been a popular Mother's Day gift. Available at any grocery store, this foil-wrapped afterthought does a great job showing just how little effort you spent. Well, this year's going to be different.

This "potted plant" ice cream cake is so easy to make, and it's as beautiful as it is delicious. No matter how disappointed your mother is in you, one look at this creative cake you made for her, and she is guaranteed to be slightly less disappointed.

By the way, do a little research and use her favorite cake, ice cream, and flowers in its construction. I really hope you give this a try, and show her just how much you really do care. Enjoy!

36 comments:

This is great, Chef John! I think I'll try it out someday and surprise my wife (she loves flowers). But she's not a big fan of sweets and hates chocolate (weird, right?), so I'll have to get creative and use some of her favorites.

Hey, I'm lucky she loves flowers more than jewelry! But what about those who are not so fortunate? Any ideas for edible jewelry? ;)

Leaching out of lead in glazes used in foreign countries like China, Mexico, comes from storage in the container. Acid foods are the worst culprits, like fruits, fruit juices, vinegar, lemon juice, wine or tomato based sauces. Milk has lactic acid. However they do make bowls that are "flowerpot style" that are food safe. Of course they are pricier.If you line it with plastic wrap and don't keep the stuff in there too long, probably okay.Luisa Vacaville

lets snack on this potted ice-cream flower while riding a subway train and watching the puzzled reactions of strangers. I think dark chocoloate ice-cream would be called for as to not to give away the joke.

I loved this ideaI made some but used ice cream cones for the "pot" and baked the cake right into them. I then iced them and put the "dirt" on top of that and place a flower in a straw.The result was really cute.

Thanks so much chef John!! I made 6 flower pots (mother, grandmother and aunts) by filling them with (2 layers of) Sarah Lee pound cake, different kinds of ice creams and smashed Oreos. You can't imagine all the praise I got today! Everyone said it was a very thoughfull, unique and delicious gift! (And all of them were skeptical when I told them to try the "dirt" haha!)The gifts were very worth the (about) $4 i invested for each of the filled pots, including the real flowers.I wish I could post the pictures of the pots over here, they all turned out so colorfull! It was a beautifull idea and fun experience, and i think I will repeat it next year!Thanks chef John for your help, recipes and ideas!

This is very life-like. I made this for my mom's birthday yesterday. I had promised her a birthday dessert and her reaction of disappointment was pretty funny: "That's nice...but where is the dessert?"